I am very excited to announce @Dana Riddle as the newest Expert Contributor to the Reef2Reef Community. Dana will be heading up and overseeing the lighting forum. If you know about Mr. Riddle then you'll be very excited about this news! If you don't know him then you will quickly learn what a valuable asset he is going to be to our reefing family here at R2R!

The following is his bio.

The ocean has fascinated me ever since a summer vacation in the early 1960’s that included a visit to the rocky tide pools of Maine. The wonderful sight of marine creatures in a seaweed-filled pool will never be forgotten. Later, trips to the panhandle of Florida were filled with excitement as we pulled a seine through the seagrass beds and collected seahorses, pipefishes, cowfishes, and a myriad of other animals. Bringing some of these animals home to a suburb of Atlanta only seemed natural, and so it began.

A renewed fascination began with the publication of George Smit’s late 1980’s articles in Freshwater and Marine Aquarium (FAMA) concerning the keeping of marine invertebrates and algae. I read everything I could get my hands on and once again began keeping marine invertebrates. At that time, a heavy emphasis was placed on technology to keep corals alive. After spending a considerable amount on various devices and obtaining only moderate success, I decided to invest in some scientific instruments with the first being a meter to test PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation.) Then, a good PAR meter and underwater sensor cost $1,500. To my knowledge, I was the only hobbyist in the US to own such a device at that time. I began writing for aquarium hobbyist literature such as SeaScope, Marine Fish Monthly, and FAMA to pay for this equipment. More equipment purchases were made, and I wrote for other publications such as MASNA’s newsletter, Breeders’ Registry, Koralle, Récifal, Aquarium Frontiers (and later Advanced Aquarist), Planted Aquaria, Manhattan Reefs, and others.

To date, I’ve had over 250 articles published over the last 30 years. My modest book, The Captive Reef, was published in 1995. My little laboratory now has $100,000 worth of equipment, including, besides all the standard things, an analytical balance, centrifuge, spectrometer, colorimeter, data loggers, Ocean Optics spectrometers for analyses of light, two PAM fluorometers, drying oven, incubators, water bath, chlorophyll meters, electronic water velocity meter, and so on. These instruments have generated a lot of information generated and my writings have become much more technical in nature. Comments on them are coming from serious hobbyists as well as the professional reef science community.

Invitations to speak at clubs around the country began, followed by regional and national conferences. To date, I’ve made over 60 presentations from coast to coast. In 2011, I was awarded MASNA’s ‘Aquarist of the Year.’ Today, research continues and I’m excited about solving some of the remaining questions concerning modern reef-keeping.